In 1958, during the height of the Cold War, a gifted young American pianist named Van Cliburn decisively won the first-ever Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. Four years later, in 1962, the eponymous Van Cliburn International Piano Competition launched in Fort Worth, Texas, and it has held forth every four years since, providing a springboard for aspiring pianists.
The competition is long (16 days) and rigorous, with competitors having to execute some of the most difficult piano manuscripts around; they are then judged by panels of classical music’s illuminati.
This weekend, local concertgoers hear a pianist who, in 2013, took home the coveted Cliburn gold medal, beating out 29 others. Last month Kiev-born Vadym Kholodenko faced a far harsher test. He found his two young daughters dead at the home of his estranged wife and called 911. Police have filed capital murder charges against her, and she remains in custody in lieu of $2 million bail.
Over three days, the uber-acclaimed player performs two masterpieces in Carmel and Salinas for the Monterey Symphony’s 70th anniversary season.
The outings will open with Paul Hindemith’s modernistic Symphony in E-flat, Op. 50, (1940), a brass-heavy, march-like, rousing work brimming with energy, interesting melodies and throbbing rhythms. After intermission, Kholodenko and orchestra will return for a reading of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73 (the “Emperor”) and its clear romanticism and sheer elegant beauty. Musicologist Dr. Todd Samra lectures on the composers and their compositions an hour before the performances.
Selections will also be performed on Monday, April 25, at free youth concerts at 9:30am and 11am. RSVP dross@montereysymphony.org or 646-8511.
MONTEREY SYMPHONY CONCERT V 7:30pm Friday, April 22. Sherwood Hall, 940 North Main St., Salinas. $20. 8pm Saturday, and 3pm Sunday, April 23-24. Sunset Center, San Carlos and Ninth, Carmel. $29-$79. www.sunsetcenter.org
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